Thursday, October 13, 2005

What larks, eh Pip? What larks!

Margaret Thatcher is 80 today. More significantly, my dearest darling Mother turns 52, the genius Paul Simon is 64 and the great Nana Mouskouri (who I believe is now an MEP) turns 71. So Happy Birthday Maggie, Mum, Paul and Nana. That would be some joint birthday party, wouldn’t it? Some interesting Kareoke duets towards the end of the evening.

All these people had a great and positive influence on me as I was growing up. Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister for the first ten years of my life, during which time my family were generally very hard up, my Dad was often unemployed and there was a general sense of being very close to a financial abyss. This I guess politcised me from a young age. And with there always having been a woman in the top job in the country, it didn't occur to me until a bit later on that being female was any kind of problem when it came to doing whatever you liked.

My Mum didn't do a great deal, just the usual; gave birth to me, fed and clothed me, instilled me with a sense of right and wrong, read many books out loud thus stimulating my passion for literature. Made me laugh. Stuck plasters on. Got rid of headlice. Facilitated and shared in many great adventures It wasn't much, but I suppose she deserves a mention...

Paul Simon's Gracelands has always been playing somewhere in the soundtrack to my life. As children my sister and I used to do most Simon & Garfunkel songs as duets, so hours of fun for both ourselves and the local dog population who would gather and howl below the windows of our house.

And Nana Mouskouri is my ideal of feminine beauty and charm and probably singularly responsible for the sexual confusion that dominated my teenage years. I probably exaggerate, but she is a very sexy lady and it is her birthday today so I have to big her up a bit.

It is also my brother-in-law's father Keith's birthday today so many happy returns to him.

In other news, my friend Lady Bracknell's editor received her award for being Disabled Person of the Year at the Positive Action NorthWest Awards on Tuesday evening. Previously her award was a state secret but now the news is out, I suggest we all go over to Lady Bracknell's blog and give her a pat on the back - a gentle one mind. And on the back, not a pat on the head.

Pete, you are quite correct. It is also one of my Mother's sayings. Her two most frequently used sayings are "What larks eh, Pip? What larks!" and "Don't let them buggers get you down." which has no literary origin that I know of but is applied to any negative situation.

I imagine that if she should ever suffer from dementia in later life she will be reduced to these two responses applied to all situations like Father Jack with his "Girls, Drink, Arse."

Occasionally there are variations when she is very excited, "What parks, eh lip? What parks!" or "What sharks, eh ship? What sharks!" etc.

Hope your Mum had a nice day... as for Maggie, well, politics aside, I saw a programme about somebody who'd painted a portrait of her, and the lady herself said (on seeing the finished image) something along the lines of "If there's any regrets I have in my life, it's not moisturising my neck more..." I took note and did the very same as my new year resolution last year - and it's the one resolution I've never broken.